Displace Me - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Displace Me was a nationwide event hosted by the nonprofit Invisible Children Inc. on April 28, 2007. In 15 cities across the United States, 68,000 individuals came together to raise awareness about the situation of the displacement camps

Displaced persons camp

A displaced persons camp or DP camp is a temporary facility for displaced persons coerced into forced migration. The term is mainly used for camps established after World War II in West Germany and in Austria, as well as in the United Kingdom, primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the...

in northern Uganda.

The event had three main goals:

To educate participants about displacement camps in the North by simulating, as best as possible, the experience of living in an IDP camp.
To create greater national and international attention of the humanitarian crises in northern Uganda.
To garner the political attention needed to see a peaceful resolution to the war in northern Uganda, primarily through the appointment of one senior level U.S. diplomat.

Locations

City	MySpace Profile
Atlanta, GA Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65436067
Austin, TX Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65038801
Chicago, IL	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65380673
Denver, CO Denver, Colorado The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...	http://www.myspace.com/gncdenver
Kansas City, MO Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=165871683
Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=170141376
Nashville, TN Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=165831595
New Orleans, LA New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=156729285
New York, NY	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=164055202
Orlando, FL Orlando, Florida Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65389373
Phoenix, AZ Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=163291058
Pittsburgh, PA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=66264655
San Francisco, CA San Francisco, California San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=164072305
Seattle, WA Seattle, Washington Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=64685902
Washington D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....	http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65035604

The event

Displace Me was created to be an experiential event. To encourage the simulation, participants were asked to bring the following:

Enough cardboard to build something the size of a small tent.
A sleeping bag.
A 1.5-liter bottle of water (with an airtight seal—to be collected upon entry).
A box of saltine crackers (with sealed packaging—to be collected upon entry).
A current photo of you wearing a white T-shirt with a red X.

With 15 locations across the United States, participants had to travel long distances to reach their “camps.” The traveling aspect was reflective of the displaced individuals in northern Uganda who were given 48 hours to leave their homes and relocate to displaced camps throughout the region.

Once Displace Me participants arrived at their camps, they built “huts” out of cardboard boxes.

Throughout the remainder of the night, participants were rationed food and water and heard, via video, personal testimonies from those living in the IDP camps in the North.

Other aspects of the event included a speech at every city from an individual personally connected with the conflict. Speakers included the Gulu District Chairman Norbert Mao

Norbert Mao

Norbert Mao is a Ugandan lawyer and politician. He is the current president of the Democratic Party, and the Local Council 5 Chairman for Gulu District.-Background:He was born on March 12, 1967. His father was Acholi and his mother was a Munyankole...

, Invisible Children’s Ugandan Country Director Jolly Okot, and the Senior Adviser to the International Crisis Group John Prendergast

John Prendergast

John Prendergast is an American human rights activist, author, and former Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. He is the co-founder of the Enough Project, a non profit human rights organization affiliated with the Center for American Progress...

, among others. First Lady Laura Bush

Laura Bush

Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...

also directly addressed the Displace Me participants via a prerecorded speech shown on video.

Participants concluded the night by writing letters to their government leaders and the President of Uganda, calling friends and family who weren’t aware of the conflict, as well as holding 21 minutes of silence for the 21 years of war.

During the night participants also helped film a video that was to be shown to members of the U.S. Senate. Participants in each city held up giant banners with their city's name and one to two phrases from the below statement. The video can be seen here.

The message

We are a movement of everyday heroes.

We are the never-before

Demanding the never-again.

After 21 years of war

1.5 million forced into camps

Are dying by the thousands.

We will not close our eyes to the emergency in Northern Uganda.

This isn't about guilt-

It's about faces with names.

The 50 American states

Are united in 15 cities.

(List all cities.)

We are displaced

Because they are displaced.

The time has come for peace.

Apathy has become activism.

We go without food

We go without water

For the Invisible Children who go without.

We forego our comforts, and forego our beds

For equality

Freedom

And justice for all.

We stand on our forefathers' shoulders

To declare that all men are created equal.

We ask:

Peace in Northern Uganda

Protection of its citizens

And a plan to bring them home.

Every war has an end.

Locations

The event

The message

See also